It has been said, with how much truth let us consider,
"Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise;"
the reverse of which is, "Where knowledge is bliss, 'tis folly to be
ignorant." The first proposition was evidently intended for the Negro,
and the last for the white man; as intellectual pleasures and
knowledge are esteemed highest by the latter, and animal pleasures by
the former. Happiness is the aim of both; the difference is in the
mode of attaining it, and the degree of it when attained. The negro is
perfect in his kind. Sympathy will not make him a white man. Would you
interrogate nature on the wisdom of her works? Would you denounce them
as imperfect? Can you improve upon the architecture of the honey-bee,
or the method of his distillation? or on nature's processes of
germination and vegetation? Your cup of liquid poison is but a mean
equivalent for his treasured nectar; your hot-house culture yields
nought for the beauties of Flora, nor the sweetness of her priceless
perfumes. The spider would not be a butterfly even if you could give
him wings. The power to fly would only enable him to spin his web in
air, and obscure the sunlight. His own way is best, both for him and
man.